BEIJING - China’s foreign exchange reserves rose twice as much as expected in July to a nine-month high as tighter regulations and a weaker dollar curbed capital outflows.
Reserves rose $24 billion (R321.44bn) in July to $3.081 trillion, compared with an increase of $3.2bn in June.
Economists had expected foreign exchange reserves to rise $12bn. It was the first time that China’s reserves had climbed for six months in a row since June 2014, lifting them to the highest level since October last year.
China’s foreign exchange regulator said weakness in the dollar helped push up the value of non-dollar currencies in its reserves.
The euro gained more than 3% against the dollar last month.
China burned through nearly $320bn of reserves last year, but the yuan still fell about 6.5% against the dollar, its biggest annual drop since 1994.
Its forex pile, the world’s largest, fell below the closely watched $3trln level in January for the first time in nearly six years.